This Guy's Seen a Lot

Comboni priest says time in L.A. prepared him for strife-ridden Egypt

 "I appreciate the civil rights tradition in the states. You can be who you want to be as long as you respect others," he told Catholic News Service in his residence in a building attached to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church, which St. Daniel Comboni founded in 1880.

"The other thing I learned is ... a sort of entrepreneurial approach. You can make something out of the nothing. If you work hard you will get somewhere," said Father Esti, who holds degrees from the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago and Claremont Graduate University in California. ...

"In spite of the fact that the Western world sees this area in retrograde, there is a kind of sanity," he said, adding that, unlike some of areas of the U.S. where he'd lived, most Egyptians "don't have guns and, generally speaking, are not on drugs."

"In the states, life is too fast, so even if you have a lot, you cannot enjoy it. Here life is slower, and you can enjoy the little you have," he said.

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